The Bar Association of Pécs in the Period of Anti-Jewish Laws (1938 – 1944)

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to illustrate how anti-Jewish legislation, adopted between 1938 and 1944 in Hungary affected Jewish lawyers or lawyers with Jewish origin in the city of Pécs. Anti-Jewish laws, contrary to the principle of legal equality excluded Jewish lawyers from the management and leadership of Bar Associations and made it almost impossible for Jewish clerks to be a member of the Bar Association. Discriminatory provisions also limited the employment opportunities of Jewish lawyers. During World War II almost two thirds of Jewish lawyers living in Pécs became victims of the Holocaust.